Improved steam-condenser



UNITED STATES PATENT GEEICE.

WILLIAM A. LIGHTHALL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVED STEAM-CONDENSER.

Speciiication forming part of Letters Patent No. 33,952, dated December 1'7, 1861.

To a/ZZ whom, it may concern.' 4

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. LIGHTHALL, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Condensers for Condensing the Steam Exhausted from High-Pressure Engines used in Vessels Running in Salt or Impure Water and for Making Potable Vater from Salt-Water; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, in which- Figure lis a side view of the apparatus. Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken through the center of the width of the apparatus; Fig. 3, a transverse section taken through the line x so, Fig. 2.

For high-pressure or non-condensing engines used on vessels employed in salt-water or in impure Water containing sedimentary matter which is deposited in the boilers attached to and supplying steam to the saine it is of .great advantage to use fresh water in the first case or pure Water in the last, carried in tanks on board the vessel, or else to first supply the boilers with fresh or pure water and then to condense the steam exhausted from the engines and return it as distilled water to the boilers. If the steam is exhausted into the atmosphere (and therefore Wasted) and the loss of water in the boilers due thereto made up by a supply of fresh or pure water carried in tanks, the operation is attended with disadvantages of considerable magnitude: first, the cost of the water to be placed in the tanks; second, the cost of carrying the weight of Water contained in the tanks; third, the loss of time occasioned by the stoppage of the vessel to receive this supply of water, and, fourth, the unequal ballast of the vessel between the times of the tanks being full and empty.

To secure the advantages of using fresh or pure water without the disadvantages attending the carrying of a supply of the same in tanks, as above described, is the object and purpose of my invention, which consists in placing a condenser, constructed, arranged, and operated as hereinafter described, between the engine and boilers, into which the steam exhausted from the engine is carried to be condensed and from which the water of cOndensation-pure anddistilled-is returned to the boilers by the action of the force-pump of the engine.

A is the case or shell of the apparatus, which is made of plate or cast iron of a length, width, and height proportionate to the duty required.

B B are reservoirs which are securely and tightly attached to the ends of the oase and which are covered by the covers C C', which can be removed to examine, replace, or repair the tubes hereinafter mentioned.

D D are head-sheets, into which the tubes E are secured in any required manner to keep them (the tubes) tight and to preserve them so under the eects of their varying expansion and contraction induced or produced by the intermittent supply of steam to the apparatus, due to the exhausting of the engine. These tubes are made of the smallest internal diameter that will allow the requisite supply of cooling water to readily pass through them-say for a tube of ten feet in length an internal diameter of about tive-eighths (g) of an inch, and in that proportion for different lengths to allow the same proportionate quantity of water to pass. They are alternated in position in vertical direction, so that the tubes of one horizontal row stand opposite the spaces between the tubes of its adjoining rows, in order that the current of steam entering the apparatus shall be passed in a divergent course by and against the exterior surface of the tubes for its more sudden and perfect condensation.

The steam exhausted from the engine enters the apparatus through the nozzle F and passes down by and among the tubes in the space (in length) formed by the head-sheet D and the first division-plate G, then up through the second space, and so on until it is condensed. The uncondensed vapor passes off to the atmosphere through the nozzle H, while the water of condensation passes into the drip or receiving reservoirlthrough the apertures in the dripplate J, as shown, from whence it passes to the force-pump of the engine to be pumped back into the boilers through the nozzle K. The division-plates G iill up the full width, oi' the interior of the case, but are made enough less in length than the height of the interior of the case to allow the curcase, so as to close the spaces alternately at top and bottom to form these spaces, as

shown. L is the n.OZzle through which the supply of cooling-Water Yis carried into the reservoir B to pass into and through the tubes to keep them cool to effect their purpose of: condensation, the Water after passingthrough the tubes into the reservoir B being taken* This supply :of: cooling-'Water is taken into and from the ap-l' paratus by means of the chutes patented to me by 'Letters Patent ofthe'U-n'itedStates, dated March :5, 1861,1to A'which reference is I boilers Iare supplied with kaprope'rsupply of olf through fthe nozzle L'.

hereby made.

The operation of the appara-tus gis as -fol-pi lows: 'The movement of the vVessel #through the Water-causes 'the external Water toipassl (through the vchutes above `named.) into the apparatus through the nozzle L, 4'and from thence into and through -ithe vtubes E, and from-thence outboard `through the nozzle L".

The :exhaust-,steam from the engine passes into the appfcratusthroughthe nozzle passingbyand `among 'the 'tubes E in `theA first space, and from --thence,until o-condensved,'into the other spaces shown, lthe cooled tubes divesti-ng the steam of'its vcaloric and condensing it into Water which falls upon and through the drip-plate J into the drip-reser- Voir I, from whence it passes to the forcepump of the engine through the nozzle K to be pumped back `-to the boiler.

When the apparatus is used on land or on `a `Vessel .to make potable Water from salt-Water, the supply of cooling-water to pass.

through the tubes E can be furnished by a rsteamfpump :of any desired con-struction or by any other means that may be preferred, the supply 0f condensed Water in such cases being takenoff throughthenozz'leK toatauk or reservoir provided to receive it, While the salt-water. -W.hat l claim as Ymy invention to 4secure by Letters Patent, is-

AvThe coubi-nation of thedriip-p'late .1, drip- -w'i'th vthe'case A, arranged and qperatedfas-and for 'the purpose set forth.

' i A. LJIGHTHALL.

Witnesses: v

FRANoIs S. Low, JOSEPH BISHOP. 

